Has it been days or has it been just hours?

Alana couldn't tell the passage of time in this dim lit freezing prison of a room. After Lylas left, she had passed out from the pain. She awoke again because she was cold. Her hand was still limb from her broken wrist but the pain was less intense than earlier.

However, what scared her the most was the sooty black colour forming in her fingertips from the lack of blood circulation.

Alana hugged herself as she shuddered, an attempt to conduct heat into her body. While doing this, she tried to remember what sort of great crime she had committed to be punished this way.

Oh that's right. I almost killed Mena.

Alana didn't understand how it happened at that moment, she stared at her good hand and cringed. If such a power was within her, a dangerous power capable of hurting someone she cared about, then she didn't want any of it.

Was it fair that Lylas was punishing her this way? Her heart agreed, but her mind and body that was unbearably cold, didn't.

He should have taken into consideration that she was new to this. He should have taken into consideration that when he offered her that apple he never explained that it contained powers. He should have also taken into consideration that after she gained those powers, she didn't know how they worked and how to control them.

He is the one at fault.

You're wrong! Her heart disagreed. Who was the one whom threw caution at the wind and entered that garden? Who was the one that challenged him to offer the apple? Who was the one that instantly got excited over the gained powers? Who was the one that was selfishly thinking of eating a burger while throwing those silver balls of light?

Yes it's my fault. All of it. And so I deserve this punishment.

Alana blew on the fingertips of her good arm and then used those warm finger tips to warm her limp hand. When she tried lifting that hand, an excruciating pain shot through her. Telling her of the severed tissue and damaged sensory nerves.

Your hand is dying. She reminded herself.

The tissue cells on her fingers were now completely black. The loss of blood circulation evident in the paleness of her whole disjointed hand.

"Lylas! Zenos? Gigi? Fifi? Anyone!"

Alana called out for them, realising that if she persisted this way, there was a chance of losing her hand completely.

Although the pain was dull and numb, aided by the powers still residing in her. The fact of the matter was that her hand was slowly becoming redundant. If she didn't act fast that hand would have to be amputated.

Alana called out again, panic and anxiety making her hysteric when no answered her back.

She was alone in this dark cold room, with only a toilet and a closet, and no furniture. There was nothing she could do about her hand and her situation.

Through her panic, she remembered Mena was in a far worser state than she was. Thinking of Mena made her calm down slightly.

"What did Lylas say?" She asked herself.

"I have to stay in this freezing dark room so that the thousand years of energy I attained exhausted itself by keeping me warm."

If it was so, then why was she still feeling pain and coldness? How could she protect herself from the cold and pain? Was there a spell to do so? He didn't give her spell? Was it a secret magic she had to unlock somehow?"

Warm! Hot! Beach! Dessert! Fire! She imagined all of these things inside her head, trying to make them appear in front of her.

I will never take warmth for granted ever again! She thought as she shivered through the cold.

I hope Mena is alright? And Karla too?

She remembered now, that she didn't get the chance to speak to her friend before Lylas dragged her here in her shocked state.

I probably do deserve to die! I'm a useless, selfish person who doesn't think of anyone but herself! A waste of space who has caused trouble for people trying to help her.

Time was her enemy and the more she slowly froze, the more she realised she was getting warmer.

Am I going crazy?. The heat inside her body was alarming, it felt cold and warm at the same time. Was this hypothermia?

She didn't know how long time had passed, however the blackness of gangrene had now reached the base of her fingers. Those fingers were useless now.

It's alright! I can live without fingers. Alana imagined that life without fingers. She laughed at the thought of it.

It got to point that Alana wasn't sure if she was thinking and talking out loud anymore. Only her voice was the only audible sound in this lonely room.

I'm definitely loosing it. How much time has passed?

Just when she thought she could bare it—the pain and her discomfort—her hunger began making her alert. She tried to sleep but sleep didn't come.

I'm going to die a slowly and excruciating death!

***

Alana was singing to herself, the blackness had now reached her broken wrist and she was coming to terms with the fact that she would no longer use that hand.

Has anyone been tortured like this before? She wondered. The lines were becoming blurry—the reasons between why she deserved this and why it was unfair.

They don't love you! The universe doesn't want you to be loved! Your birth mother didn't love you! Your parents may have loved you but the universe took them away! Your friend left you because she didn't love you enough to stay with you! You're destined to be alone! You're destined to die a lonely cold death!

Her breath shook with tears that could never come. She was too frozen to cry.

Did he really forget about her? How long until the powers are gone from her. She never wanted these powers in the first place. She would never want to have powers at all after this ordeal. She would refuse them even if they were offered on a platter for her to consume.

"I-I've l-learned m-my l-lesson! P-p-p-please no more!" She didn't know where she was getting the strength to speak in that painful state.

Maybe she was overthinking. Maybe the reason no one came for her was because something happened to Mena. Maybe Mena had lost her life and they were now holding a funeral for her and it was all her fault.

Alana sobbed at the thought. She had become so accustomed to Mena, she considered her as a sister. A sister that cared so deeply for her. And yet she had caused her demise.

Because Alana cried for a long time, that day—on the second day—after been thrown in this room, she slept. She never felt so happy to escape the prison of her mental state. Deprived from social interaction, frozen with cold, deprived from food and medicine, Alana was so glad to sleep and escape to her dreams.

Unfortunately, these dreams of hers were further from the relief she had bargained.

Alana couldn't remember the odd dreams she kept having, there were fragmented and weird and it was hard to tell what was real and what was not. What had already happened and what was yet to happen.

There was, however, one prominent dream that Alana remembered. In this dream she was pregnant with Lylas's child. Mena was there with her. They lived together in an island that contained only one cottage house and nothing else. There was only her and Mena in that island and no one else. Alana didn't know why but she felt abandoned in that island.

"Mistress..." Mena called out for her.

"Mena?" She turned around from the window, her eyes had been looking out to the sea of darkness with a desperate yearning she couldn't decipher.

Looking down, she couldn't see her feet, only a huge mass of her belly. Mena supported her to a rocking chair.

"He will come." She reassured her.

"It's been three years, I don't think he cares for me anymore."

"But mistress carries his child surely for his child he will come." Mena insisted.

She shook her head. "I've caused him enough trouble. He hates me. Meeting me was his downfall, he said so himself. So no one will come for me, in this lifetime, I'm destined to be alone."

"What about mistress's family; mistress's father, brother, step-mother and step-sister all loved mistress, I don't understand how they can be so cruel as to not visit you." Mena was stubborn, if she could give any comfort to her mistress she would in a heartbeat. Mena would even go as to trade places with her if she had to.

"I bear a child with demon essence, Mena, that alone is enough to make father turn against me." She told her.

As soon as she said this, the child inside kicked. His kicks hitting her ribs and making it harder for her to breathe. She groaned, cowering in the chair, wishing for that moment that she still retained her powers. However, this was her punishment and she must endure.

The child in her stomach dependant on her to endure. Although, he's been torturing and weakening her body for the last three years of pregnancy, this maternal love she felt for him was inexplicable and very overwhelming.

It was this pain that made Alana conscious of the dream. She had never felt such pain in her life. It was a pain that caused her to feel very weak. It was hard to distinguish where this pain was stemming from in her body.

There was a physical pain, and a mental pain. There was pain of love and heart break and a pain of hope, loneliness and despair. It was too much to bear and Alana wanted out of it.

Then the dream became foggy and hazy all of a sudden. She felt her soul detaching from the physical body and felt as if she was being transported upward. She watched downward at the two women, an unfamiliar woman whom looked longingly toward the seas and another whom was desperately trying to attend to the former.

***

When Alana opened her her eyes again, she was now lying on a patch of pinkish white blossoms. Looking up, Alana recognised these petals. She was lying under a blossomed rana apple tree. She sat up, leaning on her hands and quickly winced at the shooting pain spiking up her arm. When she looked down, she saw her broken wrist had caused this sudden pain.

Her hand was completely pitch black in colour and there was a continuous discolouration on her upper arm.

I need to cut this hand now! She panicked. Alana was aware she was dreaming and so she willed for a knife to appear. Like magic, a sharp chopping knife landed on her good hand.

She didn't think of anything when she suddenly withdrew the hand with the knife, ready to chop off the broken one.

"What are you doing!" A voice shouted from behind, startling her so much she dropped the knife.

Before the knife could land on her thigh, it stopped mid-air.

"Are you crazy?!" Alana instantly recognised Lylas' voice.

She turned around and saw him taking quick strides toward her. He grabbed the knife that was suspended mid-air and threw it away. Alana watched it disappear in pixilated lights. She was transfixed at this imagery for a while before Lylas' movement brought her attention back.

"What were you planing to do?" His voice was dangerously low.

Alana looked up at him and brought her broken wrist to his sight.

"I need to amputate this arm."

Something flashed in his eyes as he stared down at her hand. He was frozen for a while before he reacted.

His movement was so quick and fast, Alana didn't have time to register. Lylas began flying fast at the same second that he took her into his arms. The whiplash was abated by his strong muscular energy.

With her head between his chest and bicep, Alana couldn't see where they were going. She only felt the air brushing against her, telling her of the speed that was his flight.

He landed somewhere in the middle of a field. This certain field felt familiar to her. It took a while to realise that it was the same field that was a gateway to the scared lotus spring bath.

Instead of taking out a pearl and throwing at the forcefield as Mena had demonstrated, Lylas made the forcefield appear easily on the whim of his voice. After it opened, he quickly dashed through it.

This time, they didn't take the route to the lotus spring bath, they went down south. Another forcefield portal appeared and they entered it.

"What's this place?" Alana asked.

"It's my personal healing space." He shifted her close into his arms.

Alana had previously ignored how good it felt being held by him. This time, however, she was basking in his woody citrusy scent filling her nose. She fought the urge to lean into his chest and had to constantly remind herself to remain still as possible so that she wouldn't be inconveniencing him.

The place they had entered was inversely proportional to the lotus spring bath space. However, this time, the trees were on the rocks that were all suspended in the space filled water and clouds.

A set of stairs appeared at the water surface and Lylas landed on those stairs before trekking upward to one rock. This rock was filled with grass, herbs and a lone tree with a strange smooth cream coloured bark.

Lylas then gently placed Alana down on the grass and upon sitting, flowers began to sprout around her.

"What happened to your hand?" He took her broken hand and examined it.

"I broke it when the tree had suddenly emerged in the dinning room...the impact threw me against the wall and I landed on my hands."

The gentle touch of his hand mesmerised her. The soft strokes increased her heartbeat and peppered her skin with goosebumps.

"We can still save it..." He told her as he gently placed her hand on the patch of flowers surrounding her.

Something miraculous happened. The flower petals that sprouted began dissembling and moving toward her broken wrist. Every petal covered her black hand. The rock trembled around them and she realised the quake was caused by the roots of the tree moving around her.

One cream coloured root appeared, wrapping itself around her broken wrist. A strange coloured water began to pool around her broken hand. This water glowed brightly and the intensity increased until her eyes couldn't handle the brightness and so she closed them.

Alana opened her eyes again when she felt something tickling her eyelids. When she opened her eyes, she caught a startled Lylas whom had his hand on her face.

Clearing his throat, he removed that hand pretending nothing happened as he pointed to her broken hand.

Alana gazed at where he pointed and was surprised to see pigmentation in her hand again. What was more, she could even move her broken hand.

She was flexing her wrist and moving her fingers and the feeling of her working hand made her so happy she forgot about her earlier demise.

"Thank you!" She said to him in a big smile.

"I could really get used to this...If only medicine back home was this effective, everything is so surreal and breathtaking, you're—" Alana stopped herself quickly before she could tell him he was breathtaking.

"Your hand was concentrated with the remaining foul energy, Alana, it wasn't because of gangrene... to completely remove all foul energy at once, this Cutaa rock with its natural herb and tree should be used. No one but myself has been here before, I only ever use it for emergency," he told her.

"I'm honoured." Alana spoke softly, the way he had addressed her name earlier, made her insides turn into mush.

"I can't understand how you can be so happy when you almost died..." he trailed.

"Because you saved me...and because this is my dream. I know in reality I will be back in the dark cold room with a rotting hand, but for now I'm here out of that nightmare."

"I caused that nightmare." He reminded her. There was something in the tone of his voice that was different from normal. And by Lylas's standard normal; cold, aloof and authoritative. The way he avoided looking into her eyes when he said this remark, further enhanced this tone that spiked Alana's heartbeat.

Alana moved closer toward him, forcing him to look at her. There wasn't a frown on his face and up this close, Alana could see how golden his eyes truly were. They even sparkled ever so slightly. He was truly a mesmerising sight.

"Did I exhaust the thousand years of energy I acquired from the rana apple?" She asked.

It was a strange question to ask him in such proximity, but Alana felt oddly at ease.

"Yes, but, when I found you, your body was pale as ice. Were you cold?"

Alana ignored his question, avoiding his eyes as she leaned away from his proximity.

"Is Mena alright?" She asked as she sat back down on her heels.

"Mena is an immortal, the wound was superficial. After removing the steak, she healed very quickly." He told her.

Alana nodded. "That's good to hear, very good indeed."

Lylas shifted closer, both his hand on her shoulders, forcing Alana to look into his eyes.

"Alana, were you in pain?" He persisted.

Alana blinked at him. The soft tone of his voice made her gaze at him dazedly. She closed her eyes quickly before she could wane into those eyes.

She was looking down when she said, "I know I was wrong. I should have been more careful and should have made an effort to understand how to harness those powers instead of running amok... I deserved that punishment, you weren't being cruel because you didn't know about my broken hand." Alana couldn't understand why she was reassuring him instead of hating him.

However, it was his expression that made her feel he was concerned for her. The way he had been gentle earlier also confirmed it.

Suddenly he took her hand in his, his fingers stroking her wrist that had been broken. There was something in his expression that was different, this expression tickled her heart strings.

"Is it not painful?" The way his eyes were transfixed on her hand told her how sorry he was. Alana was speechless watching him. It was very refreshing to be treated this way by him. He usually was so dismissive when it came to her, however, his attentiveness today made her fall even harder for him.

"It's fine, I'm fine. It's all healed now thanks to you," She smiled, placing her other hand on top of his.

Lylas looked at her, once again as if he was looking at a long puzzle. "I didn't know you had such a forgiving heart."

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me...I know you said before that you'll be watching me to see if I pose a threat but I hope you can see now that I'm as dangerous a rabbit bunny."